PETA boycotts Canadian syrup, over seal harvests

05/27/09 6:06AM

People for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals is taking its campaign against Canadian seal
harvesting to America, urging consumers to boycott Canadian-made maple
syrup.

Three PETA
activists - one dressed as a baby seal - campaigned outside the Statehouse in
Montpelier on Tuesday, smashing a likeness of a maple syrup bottle until it
squirted red "blood" - it was really theatrical makeup - onto the
sidewalk.

Passersby
didn't need much coaxing, though. Nineteen-year-old Anna Macijeski, of Northfield, said she never buys Canadian maple syrup anyway.

Simon
Trepanier, a spokesman for the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers, says
he doesn't understand what seals have to do with maple syrup. He says maple
syrup makers are working with nature, not against it.